250 Pinoys safe after earthquake

Members of a search and rescue team help an injured hiker as they descend from Mount Rinjani where hundreds of people were stranded following an earthquake on Sunday in Sembalun, West Nusa Tenggara. AFP LOMBOK TRAGEDY

“They were all tired but in good condition and were checked by our medical teams on the ground upon arrival.

The Philippine Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia reported no Filipino casualty following the 6.4-magnitude earthquake that hit East Lombok in Indonesia last Sunday.

The news was relayed by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Wednesday after it received a report from the Embassy in Jakarta on the condition of about 250 Filipinos living in Lombok and its surrounding areas.

The DFA said no Filipino died or was injured as the agency extended the country’s sympathies to the families affected by the earthquake.

Ambassador to Indonesia Leehiong Wee said Indonesian authorities continue to provide aid to the victims.

The Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency reported that as of Monday, local authorities logged 17 fatalities and more than 1,000 houses damaged by the tremor.

Despite the damage, Wee said the situation on the ground remains normal with infrastructure still functioning and flights from the Lombok International Airport operating as scheduled.

But more than 500 hikers and guides were stranded by landslides on an Indonesian mountain after the earthquake. They have returned to safety after a long wait, with some recalling their terror when tons of rock cascaded down.

The shallow 6.4-magnitude quake was followed by scores of aftershocks, triggering major landslides on Mount Rinjani, blocking the hiking routes that criss-cross it.

Some 800 trekkers and their guides were on the mountain when the quake struck including citizens from the United States, France, the Netherlands, Thailand, Germany and 21 other countries, according to search and rescue officials.

Hundreds managed to find a way down and over 500 more reached safety the day after the quake.

While most were able to pick their way down the mountain on foot, at least three arrived at Sembalun village on the lower slopes by helicopter, according to officials.

Some returned with harrowing tales of being caught out by the quake.

Australian hiker Stanley Yu said the ground began to shake about 20 minutes after his group reached Rinjani’s peak.

“The earthquake lasted about 10-20 seconds. After that everybody was rushing down,” he told AFP.

“On the way down there was another earthquake and that made everyone panic—it was pretty scary.”

One Thai tourist, who reached the foot of the mountain Tuesday morning, felt the ground shake beneath her sleeping bag.

“I felt the earth move… and thought ‘Huh? What’s happening?’” she said.

“I got out of my bed and then I saw a landslide (with) rocks falling down.”

A male friend said he watched parts of Rinjani’s slopes collapse.

“The whole mountain, rocks, fell down—I was a bit afraid,” he said.

The remaining 500 or so hikers were able to start climbing down on Monday after guides discovered an alternate route that was unaffected by the landslides.

The last three trekkers — two porters and a guide — are expected to arrive at the base of the mountain by 7 p.m. local time, said Agus Hendra Sanjaya, a spokesman for the search and rescue agency on the island’s main city of Mataram.

“We have searched the (Rinjani) area, there are no more hikers,” he told AFP.

“We started this morning at 6 a.m. and will continue to monitor the situation for the next three days from our base at the foot of the mountain in Sembalun.”

Most of the trekkers reached the base of the mountain by late Monday evening, according to I Gusti Lanang Wiswananda, another spokesman from the Mataram search and rescue agency.

“They were all tired but in good condition and were checked by our medical teams on the ground upon arrival,” he told AFP.

Helicopters and search teams had been deployed to scour the mountain’s slopes and drop food supplies for those stranded on it.

Thousands of buildings were destroyed across Lombok, including a health clinic.

National disaster mitigation agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said more than 220 people suffered serious injuries.

A Malaysian tourist was among the dead, with another six citizens injured, the foreign ministry in Kuala Lumpur has said.

A total of 7,593 people are staying in temporary shelters, according to officials.

The 3,726-meter (12,224-feet) Rinjani is the second-highest volcano in Indonesia and a favorite among sightseers. With reports from AFP